Download or read book Excavations at Stansted Airport 1986 91 written by Richard Havis and published by East Anglian Archaeology. This book was released on 2004 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an account of the archaeological work begun in 1985 in response to the development of Stansted as Londons third airport. Originally it was conceived as a medieval landscape project, focusing on the three known sites in the area two of which were thought to be Domesday Manors supplemented by fieldwalking of the entire development area. By 1991 the fieldwalking programme, coupled with large-scale excavations and watching briefs, had transformed our understanding of the settlement landscape of north-west Essex, with the discovery of extensive archaeological deposits dating back to the Neolithic. The earliest occupation was characterized by Neolithic flint work, and the earliest identified structures were Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age, with one of the largest pottery collections of this date from Essex recovered from a single rubbish pit complex. Both enclosed and open settlements of Middle Iron Age date were excavated. One of these had an impressive entrance-way and substantial corner structures. A complete defended settlement of the Late Iron Age (75-25 BC) was recorded. It contained a sequence of roundhouses placed around a central square structure, interpreted as a shrine. There is evidence for internal planning of the enclosed space and for the economy of the settlement, including luxury imports. Roman settlement was represented by a series of sites with cobbled surfaces and enclosures, dating from the 1st to 4th centuries. A 1st to 2nd-century cremation cemetery comprised family groups of burials. Two of the burials contained spectacular grave goods including bronze, glass and pottery vessels as well as many other items. Environmental evidence demonstrated that agricultural activity continued in the Saxon period although no settlement sites were identified. Occupation flourished in the medieval period, with several sites containing buildings of 12th and 13th century date. The most important of these was a complete farmstead, including barn, dwelling-house, kitchen and byre. All of the medieval sites were abandoned in the late 13th to 14th century. Detailed analysis was undertaken on the upstanding post-medieval buildings, largely 17th century in origin, prior to their removal, and excavation of the below ground remains followed. The report ends by describing the construction of the Second World War airfield and its subsequent transformation as a major international airport.
Download or read book Aerial Photography and Archaeology 2003 written by Jean Bourgeois and published by Academia Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication contains the selected proceedings of a conference devoted to the history of aerial photography (Ghent, 2003).
Download or read book Archaeological Investigation written by Martin Carver and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-18 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing its numerous examples from Britain and beyond, Archaeological Investigation explores the procedures used in field archaeology travelling over the whole process from discovery to publication. Divided into four parts, it argues for a set of principles in part one, describes work in the field in part two and how to write up in part three. Part four describes the modern world in which all types of archaeologist operate, academic and professional. The central chapter ‘Projects Galore’ takes the reader on a whirlwind tour through different kinds of investigation including in caves, gravel quarries, towns, historic buildings and underwater. Archaeological Investigation intends to be a companion for a newcomer to professional archaeology – from a student introduction (part one), to first practical work (part two) to the first responsibilities for producing reports (part three) and, in part four, to the tasks of project design and heritage curation that provide the meat and drink of the fully fledged professional. The book also proposes new ways of doing things, tried out over the author’s thirty years in the field and brought together here for the first time. This is no plodding manual but an inspiring, provocative, informative and entertaining book, urging that archaeological investigation is one of the most important things society does.
Download or read book Cultural Transition in the Chilterns and Essex Region 350 AD to 650 AD written by John T. Baker and published by Univ of Hertfordshire Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comparison of the archaeological evidence from the fourth to seventh centuries AD in the Chilterns and Essex regions focuses on the considerable body of place–name data from the area. The counties of Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Essex, and parts of Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, and Cambridgeshire are included.
Download or read book Lives in Land Mucking excavations written by Christopher Evans and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2015-12-31 with total page 585 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The excavations led by Margaret and Tom Jones on the Thames gravel terraces at Mucking, Essex, undertaken between 1965 and 1978 are legendary. The largest area excavation ever undertaken in the British Isles, involving around 5000 participants, recorded around 44,000 archaeological features dating from the Beaker to Anglo-Saxon periods and recovered something in the region of 1.7 million finds of Mesolithic to post-medieval date. While various publications have emerged over the intervening years, the death of both directors, insufficient funding, many organizational complications and the sheer volume of material evidence have severely delayed full publication of this extraordinary palimpsest landscape. Lives in Land is the first of two major volumes which bring together all the evidence from Mucking, presenting both the detail of many important structures and assemblages and a comprehensive synthesis of landscape development through the ages: settlement histories, changing land-use, death and burial, industry and craft activities. The long time-gap since completion of the excavations has allowed the authors the unprecedented opportunity to stand back from the density of site data and place the vast sum of Mucking evidence in the wider context of the archaeology of southern England throughout the major periods of occupation and activity. Lives in Land begins with a thorough evaluation of the methods, philosophy and archival status of the Mucking project against the organizational and funding background of its time, and discusses its fascinating and complex history through a period of fundamental change in archaeological practice, legislation, finance, research priorities and theoretical paradigms in British Archaeology. Subsequent chapters deal with the prehistoric landscape, each focusing on the major themes that emerge by major period from analysis and synthesis of the data. The authors draw on archival material including site notebooks and personal accounts from key participants to provide a detailed but lively account of this iconic landscape investigation.
Download or read book Land Power and Prestige written by David T. Yates and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2007-08-01 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major phase of economic expansion occurred in southern England during the second and early first millennium BC, accompanied by a fundamental shift in regional power and wealth towards the eastern lowlands. This book offers a synthesis of available data on Bronze Age lowland field systems in England, including a gazetteer of sites. The research demonstrates the importance of large-scale animal husbandry in the mixed farming regimes as evidenced in the design of the field systems which incorporate droveways, stock proof fencing, watering holes, cow pens, sheep races and gateways for stockhandling. It is argued that the field systems represented a form of conspicuous production, an "intensification" of agrarian endeavour or a statement of intent, to be understood in relation to the maintenance, display and promotion of hierarchical social systems involved in exchange with their counterparts across the English Channel.
Download or read book The Social Context of Technology written by Leo Webley and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Social Context of Technology explores non-ferrous metalworking in Britain and Ireland during the Bronze and Iron Ages (c. 2500 BC to 1st century AD). Bronze-working dominates the evidence, though the crafting of other non-ferrous metals – including gold, silver, tin and lead – is also considered. Metalwork has long played a central role in accounts of European later prehistory. Metals were important for making functional tools, and elaborate decorated objects that were symbols of prestige. Metalwork could be treated in special or ritualised ways, by being accumulated in large hoards or placed in rivers or bogs. But who made these objects? Prehistoric smiths have been portrayed by some as prosaic technicians, and by others as mystical figures akin to magicians. They have been seen both as independent, travelling ‘entrepreneurs’, and as the dependents of elite patrons. Hitherto, these competing models have not been tested through a comprehensive assessment of the archaeological evidence for metalworking. This volume fills that gap, with analysis focused on metalworking tools and waste, such as crucibles, moulds, casting debris and smithing implements. The find contexts of these objects are examined, both to identify places where metalworking occurred, and to investigate the cultural practices behind the deposition of metalworking debris. The key questions are: what was the social context of this craft, and what was its ideological significance? How did this vary regionally and change over time? As well as elucidating a key aspect of later prehistoric life in Britain and Ireland, this important examination by leading scholars contributes to broader debates on material culture and the social role of craft.
Download or read book Communities and Connections written by Chris Gosden and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-11-08 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of essays by many of the leading specialists in the archaeology of the Iron Age and early Roman periods in Britain and western Europe, paying tribute to Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe. The subjects covered range over more than a thousand years, and from the Atlantic coasts to the eastern Mediterranean.
Download or read book Kingdom Civitas and County written by Stephen Rippon and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-19 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the development of territorial identity in the late prehistoric, Roman, and early medieval periods. Over the course of the Iron Age, a series of marked regional variations in material culture and landscape character emerged across eastern England that reflect the development of discrete zones of social and economic interaction. The boundaries between these zones appear to have run through sparsely settled areas of the landscape on high ground, and corresponded to a series of kingdoms that emerged during the Late Iron Age. In eastern England at least, these pre-Roman socio-economic territories appear to have survived throughout the Roman period despite a trend towards cultural homogenization brought about by Romanization. Although there is no direct evidence for the relationship between these socio-economic zones and the Roman administrative territories known as civitates, they probably corresponded very closely. The fifth century saw some Anglo-Saxon immigration but whereas in East Anglia these communities spread out across much of the landscape, in the Northern Thames Basin they appear to have been restricted to certain coastal and estuarine districts. The remaining areas continued to be occupied by a substantial native British population, including much of the East Saxon kingdom (very little of which appears to have been 'Saxon'). By the sixth century a series of regionally distinct identities - that can be regarded as separate ethnic groups - had developed which corresponded very closely to those that had emerged during the late prehistoric and Roman periods. These ancient regional identities survived through to the Viking incursions, whereafter they were swept away following the English re-conquest and replaced with the counties with which we are familiar today.
Download or read book Farming Transformed in Anglo Saxon England written by Mark McKerracher and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2018-02-21 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anglo-Saxon farming has traditionally been seen as the wellspring of English agriculture, setting the pattern for 1000 years to come – but it was more important than that. A rich harvest of archaeological data is now revealing the untold story of agricultural innovation, the beginnings of a revolution, in the age of Bede. Armed with a powerful new dataset, Farming Transformed explores fundamental questions about the minutiae of early medieval farming and its wider relevance. How old were sheep left to grow, for example, and what pathologies did cattle sustain? What does wheat chaff have to do with lordship and the market economy? What connects ovens in Roman Germany with barley maltings in early medieval Northamptonshire? And just how interested were Saxon nuns in cultivating the opium poppy? Farming Transformed is the first book to draw together the variegated evidence of pollen, sediments, charred seeds, animal bones, watermills, corn-drying ovens, granaries and stockyards on an extensive, regional scale. The result is an inter-disciplinary dataset of unprecedented scope and size, which reveals how cereal cultivation boomed, and new watermills, granaries and ovens were erected to cope with – and flaunt – the fat of the land. As arable farming grew at the expense of pasture, sheep and cattle came under closer management and lived longer lives, yielding more wool, dairy goods, and traction power for plowing. These and other innovations are found to be concentrated at royal, aristocratic and monastic centers, placing lordship at the forefront of agricultural innovation, and farming as the force behind kingdom-formation and economic resurgence in the seventh and eighth centuries.
Download or read book Le projet Planarch 2 written by and published by Editions Mardaga. This book was released on 2007 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Fields of Britannia written by Stephen Rippon and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-09-10 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has long been recognized that the landscape of Britain is one of the 'richest historical records we possess', but just how old is it? The Fields of Britannia is the first book to explore how far the countryside of Roman Britain has survived in use through to the present day, shaping the character of our modern countryside. Commencing with a discussion of the differing views of what happened to the landscape at the end of Roman Britain, the volume then brings together the results from hundreds of archaeological excavations and palaeoenvironmental investigations in order to map patterns of land-use across Roman and early medieval Britain. In compiling such extensive data, the volume is able to reconstruct regional variations in Romano-British and early medieval land-use using pollen, animal bones, and charred cereal grains to demonstrate that agricultural regimes varied considerably and were heavily influenced by underlying geology. We are shown that, in the fifth and sixth centuries, there was a shift away from intensive farming but very few areas of the landscape were abandoned completely. What is revealed is a surprising degree of continuity: the Roman Empire may have collapsed, but British farmers carried on regardless, and the result is that now, across large parts of Britain, many of these Roman field systems are still in use.
Download or read book Romano British Settlement and Cemeteries at Mucking written by Sam Lucy and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2016-11-30 with total page 778 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excavations at Mucking, Essex, between 1965 and 1978, revealed extensive evidence for a multiphase rural Romano-British settlement, perhaps an estate center, and five associated cemetery areas (170 burials) with different burial areas reserved for different groups within the settlement. The settlement demonstrated clear continuity from the preceding Iron Age occupation with unbroken sequences of artefacts and enclosures through the first century AD, followed by rapid and extensive remodeling, which included the laying out a Central Enclosure and an organized water supply with wells, accompanied by the start of large-scale pottery production. After the mid-second century AD the Central Enclosure was largely abandoned and settlement shifted its focus more to the Southern Enclosure system with a gradual decline though the 3rd and 4th centuries although continued burial, pottery and artefactual deposition indicate that a form of settlement continued, possibly with some low-level pottery production. Some of the latest Roman pottery was strongly associated with the earliest Anglo-Saxon style pottery suggesting the existence of a terminal Roman settlement phase that essentially involved an ‘Anglo-Saxon’ community. Given recent revisions of the chronology for the early Anglo-Saxon period, this casts an intriguing light on the transition, with radical implications for understandings of this period. Each of the cemetery areas was in use for a considerable length of time. Taken as a whole, Mucking was very much a componented place/complex; it was its respective parts that fostered its many cemeteries, whose diverse rites reflect the variability and roles of the settlement’s evidently varied inhabitants.
Download or read book The Small Finds and Vessel Glass from Insula VI 1 Pompeii Excavations 1995 2006 written by H.E.M. Cool and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2016-11-07 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report presents the vessel glass and small finds found during the excavations between 1995 and 2006 that took place in Insula VI.1, Pompeii (henceforth VI.1). More than 5,000 items are discussed, and the size of the assemblage has meant that the publication is in two parts.
Download or read book Bronze Age Worlds written by Robert Johnston and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-10-26 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bronze Age Worlds brings a new way of thinking about kinship to the task of explaining the formation of social life in Bronze Age Britain and Ireland. Britain and Ireland’s diverse landscapes and societies experienced varied and profound transformations during the twenty-fifth to eighth centuries BC. People’s lives were shaped by migrations, changing beliefs about death, making and thinking with metals, and living in houses and field systems. This book offers accounts of how these processes emerged from social life, from events, places and landscapes, informed by a novel theory of kinship. Kinship was a rich and inventive sphere of culture that incorporated biological relations but was not determined by them. Kinship formed personhood and collective belonging, and associated people with nonhuman beings, things and places. The differences in kinship and kinwork across Ireland and Britain brought textures to social life and the formation of Bronze Age worlds. Bronze Age Worlds offers new perspectives to archaeologists and anthropologists interested in the place of kinship in Bronze Age societies and cultural development.
Download or read book Territoriality and the Early Medieval Landscape written by Stephen Rippon and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2022-04-05 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All communities have a strong sense of identity with the area in which they live, which for England in the early medieval period manifested itself in a series of territorial entities, ranging from large kingdoms down to small districts known as pagi or regiones. This book investigates these small early folk territories, and the way that they evolved into the administrative units recorded in Domesday, across an entire kingdom - that of the East Saxons (broadly speaking, what is now Essex, Middlesex, most of Hertfordshire, and south Suffolk). A wide range of evidence is drawn upon, including archaeology, written documents, place-names and the early cartographic sources. The book looks in particular at the relationship between Saxon immigrants and the native British population, and argues that initially these ethnic groups occupied different parts of the landscape, until a dynasty which assumed an Anglo-Saxon identity achieved political ascendency (its members included the so-called "Prittlewell Prince", buried with spectacular grave-good in Prittlewell, near Southend-on- Sea in southern Essex). Other significant places discussed include London, the seat of the first East Saxon bishopric, the possible royal vills at Wicken Bonhunt near Saffron Walden and Maldon, and St Peter's Chapel at Bradwell-on-Sea, one of the most important surviving churches from the early Christian period.
Download or read book Personifying Prehistory written by Joanna Brück and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bronze Age is frequently framed in social evolutionary terms. Viewed as the period which saw the emergence of social differentiation, the development of long-distance trade, and the intensification of agricultural production, it is seen as the precursor and origin-point for significant aspects of the modern world. This book presents a very different image of Bronze Age Britain and Ireland. Drawing on the wealth of material from recent excavations, as well as a long history of research, it explores the impact of the post-Enlightenment 'othering' of the non-human on our understanding of Bronze Age society. There is much to suggest that the conceptual boundary between the active human subject and the passive world of objects, so familiar from our own cultural context, was not drawn in this categorical way in the Bronze Age; the self was constructed in relational rather than individualistic terms, and aspects of the non-human world such as pots, houses, and mountains were considered animate entities with their own spirit or soul. In a series of thematic chapters on the human body, artefacts, settlements, and landscapes, this book considers the character of Bronze Age personhood, the relationship between individual and society, and ideas around agency and social power. The treatment and deposition of things such as querns, axes, and human remains provides insights into the meanings and values ascribed to objects and places, and the ways in which such items acted as social agents in the Bronze Age world.
